GeoffShackelford.com

When you realize that a golf club positions the player’s hands 40 inches, more or less, from a ball 1.68 inches in diameter that must be hit precisely after a swing that may take the clubhead on a round trip of as much as 26 or 27 feet, you become aware of the importance of using clubs conforming correctly to your requirements. TOMMY ARMOUR

Tiger Woods should have another gift basket waiting on his doorstep today, this time from Sean McManus to go with the ones from Mark Lazarus, Mike McCarley and Fred Ridley. Okay, maybe The Masters doesn't do gift baskets.

Anyway, Tiger helped deliver a 6.1 overnight final round rating for the 2018 PGA Championship. The audience peaked at 8.3 late in the round.

Sunday’s final round of the PGA Championship earned a 6.1 overnight rating on CBS, up 69% from last year (3.6), up 56% from 2016 (3.9) and the highest since 2009 (7.5). The previous mark was a 6.0 for the 2014 final round.

The 6.1 is tied as the highest golf overnight outside of the Masters since the final round of the 2012 U.S. Open (6.6).

Some might point out that the 6.1 much better than 2014's 6.0 at Valhalla featuring the unforgettable Rory-Rickie-Phil finish. However, sports ratings have been on a decline and sizable numbers have moved to streaming, making the rating that much more impressive for CBS.

Also worth noting: the strong final round means the U.S. Open was the lowest rated final round of the four majors this year. The overnights for 2018:

More fascinating, however, was Rickie Fowler's analogy for Reed's win. (Thanks reader Mike.)

Fowler said he notices the negative perception attached to Reed and called it “unfortunate.’’

“Not to compare it but, hey, Donald Trump’s our President,’’ Fowler said. “He got elected. Accept it. That’s our President. Patrick Reed, whether you like him or not, he won the Masters. He went out and won it. There’s no politics involved. He played better than everyone else that week. He beat everyone.’’

The former Champion Golfer of the World may need a food tester at Carnoustie this year, though his comments were clearly made with an understandable bias toward wanting to win the Masters and become a career Grand Slam winner.

"I don't care about the US Open or The Open Championship – The Masters is now the biggest tournament in the world, the most amount of eyeballs, the most amount of hype, everything is at Augusta,” he said. “It's the most special tournament we play and it's the one everyone desperately wants to win.”

The story goes on to say that McIlroy's wife had to push him out of the house after suffering an understandable bout of post-final round misery following the 2018 event where he trailed by three heading into the final round.

But people love Phil Mickelson! And he’s earned it, too, for the most part. So things like that slide off of him, while people go out of their way to paint Reed as a clown for wearing the green jacket to a basketball game. The lesson, as always, is that the media (social and traditional) tends to cover people they like more favorably, fair or not.

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to be annoyed by Patrick Reed. Wearing the green jacket everywhere shouldn’t be one of them.

John Stregefiles a nice follow-up read withU.S. Mid-Amateur champ Matt Parziale after his Masters missed cut. The firefighter chimes in everything from the practice rounds and amateur dinner to his fiance's newfound interest in golf.

On the helpful nature of players in practice rounds:

Helpful, too, to a Masters rookie attempting to learn Augusta National’s nuances and mysteries in only a few days. “Golf is strange in that sense. The Patriots aren’t helping the Eagles get ready for the Super Bowl. That’s why our sport is so great. They were so great helping me around the course and showing spots where I might not want to hit it. Everyone is helpful.”

He enjoyed the perks to which every player in the field is entitled, the Mercedes-Benz courtesy car, for instance. “Probably the nicest car I’ve ever driven,” he said. There were the eight tickets a day he was provided and a few extras that he bought. “The toughest thing was getting tickets for everyone,” he said. “But the guys I couldn’t get tickets for found their own.”

Away from Augusta, competitors typically use two books, one with tee-to-green details for each hole and the other, which often has a price tag, focused solely on the greens. The Masters provides a single one, at no cost, that covers both elements, offering rudimentary information. It is left to the caddies and the players to do their own legwork and fill in the blanks. In that respect, the Augusta National book is like the course itself, designed to reward those with the most creativity, imagination and discipline.

“This has freed me up to use whatever equipment I want. On the equipment side, I’m just out there doing my thing. I’m using whatever I want to use,” Reed said. “I’m able to put 14 golf clubs and a golf ball in the bag that I feel are the perfect fit for me. To do that and come out with a my first major, it was a risk. But it was a risk that was the right one.”

A friend of Bill and Jeannette's had extra tickets to the 2014 U.S. Open, so with some trepidation, they went to Pinehurst No. 2 and followed Patrick throughout the second round, hoping to perhaps reestablish contact and meet their granddaughter for the first time. Justine was also in the gallery, but no words were exchanged. Walking up the 18th hole, Bill, Jeannette and Hannah were surrounded by police officers. They ultimately were escorted off the grounds and had their tournament badges confiscated by a USGA official who, according to Jeannette, said he was acting on Justine's wishes. (In previous interviews Patrick and Justine declined to comment on any aspect of their relationship with his parents.)

So we cried together Monday morning, two 50-something fathers talking about regrets and family divisions and the things people wished they would have said and done before loved ones passed away. We talked about green jackets, too. Patrick won the Masters 3 miles from where his father Bill and mother Jeannette and younger sister Hannah watched with family friends Sunday evening from their Augusta home. They were uninvited guests to the coronation of golf's brash new 27-year-old king.

Saturday's third round of the 2018 Masters saw a nice increase while Sunday's finale with Patrick Reed and Rory McIlroy in the final group was up 16%.

We see ratings increase numbers like that all the time, but when it's The Masters that means we're talking about a lot more eyeballs, two million to be exact: 13.027 million average television viewers versus11.051 million last year.

MASTERS FINAL-ROUND IS HIGHEST-RATED AND MOST-WATCHED GOLF TELECAST SINCE MASTERS IN 2015

DIGITAL STREAMS OF ENTIRE TOURNAMENT DRAW RECORD VIEWERSHIP

CBS Sports’ final-round coverage of the 2018 Masters on Sunday, April 8 was seen by an average of 13.027million television viewers on CBS, an increase of 18% from last year’s final round (11.051 million), according to Nielsen live plus same day fast national ratings.

Yesterday’s coverage earned an average national household rating/share of 7.9/18, an increase of 16% from last year’s 6.8/16.

This year’s final round was thehighest-rated and most-watched golf telecast since the final round of the Masters in 2015 (8.8/20; 14.231 million viewers).

The final round peaked with a 9.9/21 rating/share and 16.836 million viewers from 6:15-6:30 PM, ET.

CBS Sports’ live streaming video coverage of the 2018 Masters Tournament, featuring four channels of golf action available on CBS Sports and Masters digital platforms, drew record viewership with873 million total minutes of coverage streamed, an increase of 110% from 2017.

We've got a ShackHouse in the can that should push overnight and I'll be on Morning Drive to discuss a sensational Masters which, I believe, lived up to the hype.

Patrick Reed won't be the most popular champion on a day Rickie Fowler came excruciatingly close to winning his first major, Jordan Spieth played possibly the best round of his career until a branch intervened, and Rory McIlroy missed an opportunity to be a career Grand Slam winner.

It's a tradition unlike any other and the hole locations for Sunday's 2018 Masters final round appear...traditional. Here are five things we learned from Saturday, including insights on a tee shot distance disparity between the leaders, Rory as a mudder and Reed's streakiness.

If you missed it earlier this week Gene Wojciechowskifiled this piece for ESPN's coverage on the Green Jacket, the most famous sports jacket on the planet which will be presented in the ceremony for the 70th time this year.

An average of 3.9 million people watched ESPN’s telecast of the second round of the Masters Tournament on Friday, the most-viewed Friday at the Masters since 2013 and an increase of 50 percent over last year’s audience of 2.6 million, according to Nielsen Fast National data.

The second round, which aired from 3 p.m. until 7:45 p.m. ET, ranks as the third most-viewed Friday since ESPN began airing the Masters in 2008.

In addition to being up 50 percent over 2017’s Friday audience, the telecast also was up 28 percent over the audience of 3.1 million for the second round in 2016.

The wind, fast greens, tough hole locations and reachability of the par-5s led to rounds over five hours for the first few groups and 5:40 for the late groups.

Patrick Reed took the lead with a spectacular 66 that included three stretches of three birdies in a row, but it was his more conservative approach to the first hole, as suggested by his wife, that was of equal interest, reportsBrentley Romine.

Nearly three million viewers tuned in for ESPN’s telecast of the first round of the Masters Tournament on Thursday, an increase of 40 percent over the Thursday audience of last year, according to Nielsen Fast National data.

The telecast, which aired from 3 p.m. – 7:20 p.m. ET, averaged 2,971,287 viewers, up 40 percent from the 2,129,214 Thursday average in 2017 and up 24 percent from the 2016 Thursday average of 2,397,624.

The telecast ranked as the fourth-best Thursday since ESPN began airing the Masters Tournament in 2008, exceeded only by the years in which Tiger Woods was featured in Thursday coverage (2009, 2010 and 2015). Most of Woods’ round on Thursday had already been completed when ESPN’s telecast began.

The telecast also saw growth across all key demographics, with a 44 percent increase in persons 25-54.

Round two featured groups coverage does not include Jordan Spieth (10:53 am ET), so you'll have to pick him up On The Range and then eventually on Amen Corner Live coverage starting around 10:30 am. ET.

Every other tournament there is kind of a generic introduction before you tee off. At the Masters, though, it’s “Fore please. Doug Ghim now driving.” When I heard that my body went numb. To hear my name associated with that phrase, it’s something I’ll never forget. Somehow I got the ball on the tee. Somehow I didn’t soak my glove before the first tee shot. And I made the best swing that I possibly could and the ball found the fairway. I can now say that I striped my first tee ball at the Masters.

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RIP His Ownself, Dan Jenkins. The best sportswriter ever. Not often do you get to hang out with your hero, but I did four times a year and consider myself one lucky SOB! Thanks for all the laughs and support over the years, press rooms and media hotel bars will never be the same.

Lefty! @djohnsonpga has a good move left or righthanded

90 years ago at Riviera’s first LA Open the press worked from the clubhouse patio using a telescope and binoculars. This week the @genesisopen media center was a massive operation in between holes 1 & 2 with WiFi, a barista, interview room, TV’s and ShotLink data at our fingertips. Thank you to the staff, volunteers @tgrliveevents @genesis_usa, Brenner-Zwikel team and @pgatour for another great week at Riviera during the 2019 Genesis Open won by J.B. Holmes.